


Eli and Dave

by Can_o_tuna_balism



Category: Original Work
Genre: Anxiety, First Kiss, Original Character(s), Social Anxiety, awkward boys, puking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 20:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4934302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Can_o_tuna_balism/pseuds/Can_o_tuna_balism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave is an awkward guy with social anxiety who avoids parties and large crowds at all costs. Eli graduated from the same school as Dave the year before, joined a local band, and generally has a "I'm too cool for you" attitude. Each boy has a crush on the other - one they both believe is completely one-sided. When Eli sees Dave at a party, a place he never expected to see him, he decides to finally express his feelings for the younger guy. Unfortunately for Eli, things begin to go downhill right from the start...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eli and Dave

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for how cliche that summary was. I'm not very good at writing them. 
> 
> Also, this story was originally written as an assignment for my Grade 12 Writer's craft class. It scored me a decent mark, so I figured I would post it here.
> 
> I hope you like it!

“I don’t see why you dragged me out here in the first place,” Dave grumbled as Patricia slid the car to a slightly jerky stop against the curb.

“Seriously, Dave?” Patricia sighed, turning off the engine. She swiveled her rear-view mirror towards her and checked her makeup, while saying, “You never go out. Geez, live a little, won’t you?”

Dave didn’t reply, but instead looked out the passenger side window at the house they’d pulled up to. People were milling about on the lawn and the porch, and he could see even more people inside, all dancing along to the music that he’d been able to hear from more than a block away.

He heard Patricia open her door and get out, slamming it behind her. She appeared a moment later in front of his door. Pulling it open, she said, “Ok, let’s go.”

Feeling a sudden surge of anxiety, he said in a rush, “Yeah, how about no? I think I’ll just wait in the car. Why don’t you go in and have fun? When you’re ready to leave, I can drive you home.”

“Ha! Good try, but you’re coming with me!” Before he could react, she reached into the car, her bracelets clinking together as she pulled him out onto the grass beside her. “Who knows, you might even have fun!”

“I doubt it,” he mumbled, but he followed her up the lawn to the house anyways.

“Come on!” Patricia yelled, a wild look of excitement on her face as she stepped up onto the porch. Now that he was this close, Dave could feel the floorboards of the porch vibrating underneath him, and was almost deafened by the pounding music that assaulted his ears.

A few guys were sitting a couple metres away on the porch. Dave scanned their faces, feeling butterflies well up in his stomach, but he looked away when he realized the person he was looking for wasn’t among them. He felt a tug on his arm and realized that Patricia had been talking to him.

“What?” He asked, not even trying to cover up the fact that he hadn’t heard a word she’d just said.

“I was just saying, ‘what if Jace is here?’ Wouldn’t that be so crazy?”

“Well, considering most of our grade appears to be at this party…”

“How’s my makeup?” Patricia interrupted him to ask, widening her eyes and leaning towards him.

“Good, but you’ve got a little bit of lipstick on your front teeth,” he said. He could feel the guys on the porch looking at them, well, more like looking at Patricia, but it was still setting him on edge.

Hand flying to her mouth, Patricia nearly shrieked, “Oh My Gosh! Do I?”

“No, I’m just messing with you…” Dave said, trying to make his tone sound light. Patricia ruffled his hair and jokingly growled, “You’d better be.”

Looking over his shoulder into the house, she suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled him around towards the door. Before he could try to escape or think up an excuse, they were inside. If he’d thought the music was loud outside, it was nothing compared to inside. Stepping through the door was like being hit by a wall of music, mixed in with the not so pleasant smell of body odour and alcohol. Patricia didn’t seem to be too bothered by the noise or the smell because she continued her relentless march through the people in the hallway. Weaving in and out through the people, she pulled him down the hall as if she were on a mission.

Dave was about to ask her what was going on, when someone moved to reveal Jace leaning against the wall talking to a girl with long, blonde hair. Patricia cast Dave a quick look back over her shoulder and winked – the silent signal they’d planned earlier that day – and sidled up to Jace, pulling Dave along behind her.

“Oh, hi Jace! I didn’t expect to see you here, what with that stupid assignment Mrs. Matthews gave us.”

Patricia’s winning smile was going strong, and for a second Jace looked floored, completely forgetting about the girl he’d been talking to. To his credit, though, he recovered quickly and raised one eyebrow, saying, “Yeah, well, math is for chumps, am I right?”

_Who says ‘chumps’ anymore?_ Dave thought, nearly gagging as Patricia giggled, twirling her hair. Honestly, Dave couldn’t understand why she gave him the time of day. His hair was greased back with slightly too much hair gel, and he smelled as if he’d dumped nearly a whole bottle of cologne on himself. Just being within ten metres of the guy made Dave feel sleazy by association.

“Oh! Jace, have you met my boyfriend?” Patricia asked him, pulling Dave forwards. Of course Dave wasn’t her boyfriend, but this was all part of the plan – the plan being to make Jace ‘wild with jealousy’. He’d only agreed to it on the grounds that she never got him to participate in another one of her crazy plans again – that and she’d promised him a bunch of chicken nuggets.

“No, I haven’t,” Jace said, narrowing his eyes at Dave as he finally seemed to notice that he and Patricia were holding hands.

“Anyway, would you like something to drink?” Patricia smiled widely at Jace.

“Yeah, sure.”

Turning to Dave, she asked, “Dave, would you be a dear and get us some drinks?”

This was the point in the plan where Dave was supposed to make himself scare so that Patricia could ‘move in for the kill’ so to speak. He nodded quickly at her and retraced his steps down the hall to where he’d seen the door to the kitchen. As much as he liked being away from Jace, walking around the party alone made him uncomfortable.

Ducking just inside the kitchen door, Dave leaned against the doorframe and looked around the kitchen. It was less crowded in here than it had been in the hallway. There were a few people leaning against the kitchen’s island, drinks in hand, but none of them even looked at him as he made his way across the kitchen to the door on the other side of the room.

The door led into the living room, which was the most crowded part of the house he’d seen so far. Girls were dancing in the middle of the room to some upbeat pop song, while the guys watched from the sides, moving awkwardly along with the beat. Dave watched as one of the braver guys danced his way into the middle of the group only to be rejected by the girl he’d been trying to dance with.

The room’s couches and chairs had been pushed up against one of the walls to clear space for the girls who were dancing in the middle. These couches were occupied by couples or passed out party-goers.

Dave was just debating if he should claim one of the spots on the couch when he saw him, the guy he’d been looking for, Eli. Feeling his heart jump up into his throat, he tried to back up into the kitchen, but couldn’t as the door had swung open, bumping him and the back.

The force was almost enough to send him sprawling, but he recovered by stumbling a few feet. Regaining his balance, though, he found himself in the midst of the dancing girls.

“Of all the bad luck…” he mumbled.

 

Eli wasn’t much for socializing. In fact, the only reason why he was at this party was because his bandmates had dragged him there. They had said they wouldn’t leave him like last time, but sure enough, here he was… alone… again.

As soon as they’d gotten to the party, his bandmates had split off in different directions in search of girls. Eli, though, had made a beeline for the first couch he’d laid eyes on. He’d only just parked his butt in the comfiest part of the couch, when a girl swooped down and took the spot next to him. Unfortunately, she’d been chatting his ear off ever since.

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and tried not to be too obvious about the fact that he was checking the time. It was only 9:30 pm and one of his bandmates, his ride, wasn’t planning to leave until twelve at the earliest. He was only vaguely paying attention to what the girl next to him was saying – something about how she really liked guys who could play instruments – when a mess of curly, brown hair caught his eye.

Sitting up straighter, he chuckled under his breath at his luck. He’d never thought the other boy would be there at the party, but there he was, standing next to the kitchen door.

Eli watched as the other boy, Dave, did a quick glance around the room before his eyes came to rest on him. It was almost comical how quickly the boy’s face reddened.

Eli watched as Dave desperately tried to back up through the kitchen door, but just as he was about to escape, the door opened, sending Dave forward into the mass of girls dancing in the middle of the living room floor.

Standing up quickly, Eli was about to go to his rescue when the girl who had been talking to him grabbed his arm and asked, “Hey, where are you going?”

“Oh, uhhh…” he rubbed at his neck, trying to think up an accurate excuse, but instead managed to sound like an idiot when he blurted, “My mother lives in Toronto.”

“Um, what does that have to do with anything?” The girl was clearly confused, but Eli didn’t have time to respond as Dave had already managed to escape from the huddle of girls and was making his way towards the door that led back into the hallway.

Extricating his arm from the girl’s grip, he cut around the group of girls, making sure to stay close to the wall, and followed Dave out into the hallway.

Looking up and down the hallway to see which way Dave had gone, he caught sight of the boy’s brown, corkscrew curls only a couple feet away. He could tell the other boy was trying to make a dash down the hall, but his short stature was making that rather difficult. As he watched, he saw Dave get shoved into a couple against the wall. The girl shouted something at him, but he either didn’t hear or was in too much of a rush to care.

Pushing his way through the crowd in the hallway, Eli managed to get close enough to Dave to reach out and touch him. Reaching out, he made to grab the other boy lightly by the shoulder.

 

Feeling a hand grip his shoulder, Dave jumped. He turned, expecting to see Eli standing behind him. Instead, he came face-to-face – well, it was really more like face-to-chest – with one of the jocks from the football team.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing shoving my girlfriend like that?” The guy yelled, towering over Dave.

Dave tried to back up, but couldn’t because of the crowded hallway. He could see people turning to look at them as he struggled to come up with a response. Shaking, he managed to choke out, “It… it was an accident! I didn’t mean to, I swear!”

“Yeah? Well how about I punch you in the face and we can call it an accident? How does that sound?” Dave shrunk back, closed his eyes, and braced himself for the pain as the guy raised his fist, only to find that it never came.

Opening his eyes, he saw that someone was now standing between him and the jock, one of his hands grabbing the other guy’s clenched fist. The other boy was tall and had his long, black hair tied back tightly in a bun. Dave felt a jolt go through him as he immediately recognized his protector as Eli.

“Huh? Hey! Let go of my hand!” The jock yelled, swaying a little bit on his feet. Now that Dave wasn’t fearing for his life, he could clearly smell the reek of too much alcohol on the jock.

“If I let go, you’ll leave us alone,” Eli said it as a statement instead of a question. The jock leered at him, but seemed to realize that it wasn’t worth the fight. He waved his hand in a ‘whatever’ motion and turned back to his girlfriend, forgetting all about them.

Before Dave could try ducking into the crowd behind him, Eli had turned and was looking down at him. Feeling his face beginning to heat up, he stammered, “Um… th-thanks!”

“No problem,” Eli scratched his arm and looked around as if he were unsure as to how to continue the conversation. “Would you like something to drink?” He finally asked.

Dave was officially certain that his face was bright red, but he managed to say, “Yeah… I mean, yes! Yes please!”

_Crap, I sounded way too enthusiastic there. He’s going to think I’m weird,_ he thought. Eli, though, seemed to be just as flustered as he said, “Ok! I’ll… uh… I’ll go get us some drinks! Maybe you should come with me, though. I don’t want that guy trying to pick fights with you when I leave.”

“Actually, I need to go to the bathroom, but I can meet you in the kitchen in a bit?” Dave asked nervously.

“Yeah, sounds good. Bathroom is just upstairs and on the right.”

“Cool, thanks.”

“So, I guess I’ll see you in a bit?”  
“Yeah.”

Dave nodded at Eli and began to push his way through the crowd, but not before he heard Eli shout after him, “Have fun in the bathroom!”

 

As soon as he said it, Eli wished he could shove the words back into his mouth and possibly staple it shut. _What the hell was I thinking? ‘Have fun in the bathroom’… what was that?!_

Shaking his head, he watched as Dave practically ran down the hall and up the stairs, out of sight. _He’s probably not coming back…._ He thought. _Crap._

Sliding his hand down his face, he mumbled, “Really good job Eli.”

Ignoring the weird looks he got from the people around him in the hallway, he made his way into the kitchen to get the drinks in the hopes that Dave would actually return. Getting the drinks from one of the coolers, he leaned against the kitchen counter and tried to pretend that he wasn’t extremely nervous.

A group of people were standing around and leaning against the kitchen’s island talking. Tuning into their conversation for a second, he heard one guy with black hair say, “But I mean, is it illegal if I’m doing it in my own backyard?”

Another of the guys, a taller boy with light brown hair, answered by saying, “I don’t know… it sounds pretty illegal to me…. What do you think?” He asked, turning to one of the other guys.

_Nope, not a conversation I want to listen in on…_ Eli thought, checking his phone for the time. 9:50pm. Dave had been gone for about ten minutes. _No big deal, I’m sure there’s just a long line._

Ten minutes passed. _He probably just got into the bathroom._

10:10pm. _Maybe he’s not coming back? No, he might have met someone he knew in the hall and stopped to talk._

10:15pm.

“Should I go look for him?” He muttered, glancing around. The group that had been in there before had since left to be replaced by a couple who were sitting at the kitchen table. The girl had been giving him pointed looks for the past ten minutes, signalling that she clearly wanted him to leave. Sighing, he pushed away from the kitchen counter, drinks in hand, and set out to find Dave.

 

Dave barely made it to the bathroom in time. He’d run up the stairs, nearly tripping numerous times, before bolting down the hallway. It was considerably less crowded up on the second floor than it had been on the first, but there was still a line of people waiting for the bathroom.

As he ran down the hallway, the door to the bathroom opened and without thinking he ducked around the person and into the bathroom, swinging the door shut and locking it before the next person in line could get in. He heard fists pounding against the bathroom door and an indignant shout of ‘Hey!’, but he wasn’t listening. Sinking down with his back to the door, he tried to regulate his breathing. _Breathe in for five seconds… hold for two seconds… out for five seconds. Repeat._ The voice of his psychologist chanted in his head.

His arms and legs felt numb, and his fingers felt stiff, as if they were made of wood. The breaths were slowly calming him down, but he still felt lightheaded and dizzy. Shutting his eyes, he tried to think of anything but Eli and the party.

_Geez, I’m hopeless…._ He thought, rubbing his temples in a circular motion. Opening his eyes, he looked up at the ceiling and tried to occupy his thoughts by counting the little specks in the ceiling tiles.

It didn’t work.

_Damn._

He’d come here in the hopes that he would see Eli, if only for a moment, even if he knew that he’d never have the guts to talk to the guy. He’d known Eli for a while because he and Dave’s older brother, Bruce, had been friends. When they’d graduated, though, Dave’s older brother had gone away to University, and Eli had taken a year off to focus on his band, meaning that the two had grown farther apart. Dave was only a year younger than Eli and Bruce, and although Eli hadn’t treated him any different than he treated anyone else, Dave had still fallen hard for him.

“Why did I let Patricia talk me into coming to this party?” He grumbled into his hand. He felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket and he reached back, pulling it out. Upon checking the screen, he discovered that the message was from Patricia. It said simply: ‘just saw Eli walking around looking lost. You know anything about that? ;)’

_Oh crap, how long have I been in the bathroom?_ Checking the time, he saw that it was now 10:15pm. _Crap, he’s probably wondering where I am._

Standing up on shaky legs, he had to reach out and grab onto the bathroom counter for support. Although he’d managed to calm down significantly since he got into the bathroom, the message had reminded him all over again as to why he’d been anxious in the first place. He had trouble unlocking the bathroom door because of how much he was shaking, but he finally managed to unlock it.

He could hear people talking outside the door, one deeper voice and one higher one. The higher pitched voice sounded pissed off. _It’s probably the girl who was supposed to be next in line…. Also, that deeper voice sounds kind of familiar,_ He thought as he began to open the door. Too late, though, he realized why the voice sounded familiar as he opened the door to see Eli trying to calm down one of the girls outside.

Eli appeared to be struggling to keep the girl from busting down the door, especially since he was holding a drink in either hand. Feeling his anxiety return all over again, Dave tried to back up into the bathroom, but Eli had already seen him. Eli pushed the drinks into the girl’s hands, much to her protest, and started to walk over to Dave, a concerned look on his face.

“Dave? Are you ok? You’re all pale.” Dave heard Eli ask, but it was too late. Before he could stop himself, he was bent over, throwing up all over the floor and Eli’s shoes.

 

Eli had been arguing with the girl outside the bathroom for five minutes when he saw the door open out of the corner of his eye. Too busy to look at first – due to the fact that the girl was now poking her finger into his chest repeatedly – he said quickly, “Ok, look… I’m sure he meant it as an accident…”

“Yeah? Try telling that to my bladder! I’d been waiting for almost ten minutes to use that bathroom and then he rushes in and snags it from me! So not only did I wait for the initial ten minutes, but then I had to wait for another thirty!” Looking around him at the bathroom door she yelled, “Finally!”

Eli turned to where she was looking. Dave was standing in the doorway, his eyes wide as he stared at Eli. His face was going paler by the second and Eli could tell that it wasn’t going to be good.

Shoving the drinks he was holding into the girl’s hand, he ignored her shouts of protest and walked over to where Dave was now practically gasping for air, leaning against the bathroom’s door frame for support.

“Dave? Are you ok? You’re all pale,” he said, concern coloring his voice.

Too late, he realized that Dave was about to hurl, which he did… all over Eli’s shoes.

He wasn’t sure what to do, so he stepped back and to the right. Leaning against the wall next to Dave, he reached over and patted the other guy’s shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. This got him a shaky thumbs-up from Dave, who was trying to hold back as much of his curly hair as he could while the puke practically streamed from his mouth.

“Aw, that’s so fricking gross!” Someone in the hallway yelled.

Ignoring them, Eli leaned down and muttered near Dave’s ear, “You ok?”

Dave gave one last final wretch and nodded, slightly unsteady on his feet. Wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve, he turned and looked at Eli. For a second, Eli was floored. Despite the fact that Dave had just thrown up, that his face was bright red, and his eyes were watering, he was beautiful.

Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed hold of Dave’s hand before mumbling, still close to his ear, “You good to walk?”

Still shaking slightly, Dave could only nod.

Nodding in return, Eli began to pull Dave down the hall behind him, heading for the stairs. He ignored the weird looks they were getting from the people around them, or the indignant yells from the crowd of people outside the bathroom. He didn’t stop walking until they were out of the house and walking down the street.

Only when they had turned a corner and were safely at a bus stop a couple metres down the street did Eli stop. Pulling Dave into the bus shelter behind him, he sat down on one of the benches and looked out at the street in front of them.

 

Dave couldn’t believe what was happening. There he’d been, throwing up on the love of his life’s shoes, making an absolute fool of himself in front of a hallway full of people, yet the guy hadn’t run away. Instead, much to his surprise, Eli had stayed. Not only that, but he’d brought Dave away from the party and to what Dave was now coming to see as a refuge. He may have had a slightly irrational fear of public transportation, but maybe the bus shelter wasn’t so bad. After all, Eli was there with him.

Speaking of Eli, he realized that he was not only still holding his hand, but was, more importantly, still wearing the shoes that Dave had only just thrown up on.

“Um…” Dave found himself trailing off as Eli broke out of his reverie to look at him. Instead, he sent a pointed look towards Eli’s shoes, hoping the other boy would get the message.

Eli looked confused for a second until he looked where Dave was looking and exclaimed, “Oh, right!”

Extricating his hand from Dave’s, Eli leaned down and untied his shoes, placing them on the ground near his feet. Flicking his hands a bit as if trying to get water off of them, he placed them back in his lap and turned to look at Dave.

“So…” He said. Dave wasn’t sure how to respond so he waited. “I didn’t expect to see you at the party?”

It was phrased as a question, meaning that he wanted Dave to elaborate. Thinking for a second, he finally said, “Yeah, I didn’t expect to be at the party, but my friend Patricia dragged me there.”

“I’m guessing she abandoned you when you guys got to the party?”

“So what if she did?” Dave asked, feeling slightly defensive.

“Oh, hey, no that’s not what I meant,” Eli raised his hands, leaning back slightly on the bench. “No, I was just wondering because my bandmates did the same thing to me.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Eli folded his hands back into his lap and asked, “Why did she drag you out to the party only for you to end up alone?”

“She thinks I don’t get out enough,” Eli chuckled. “What? I go outside!”

“Really? I don’t remember you ever going outside all that much when I used to hang out with your brother.”

_That’s because you were always inside…._ He thought. Instead of saying it, he changed the subject. “Patricia brought me to the party because she devised this plan to make Jace Wilson jealous.”

“That tool?” Dave nodded. “Damn. I walked by them at the party tonight and let me tell you, that guy smells like he dumped a bottle of cologne on himself. What was her plan to make him jealous?”

“She introduced me as her boyfriend,” Dave muttered.

“Really? Wow. So, she did that and then got you to leave?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah.”

An awkward silence stretched out between the two of them in which Dave tried to look anywhere but at Eli, and Eli stared down at his puke covered shoes.

“You know something?” Eli asked, breaking the silence.

“What?”

 

“I uh…” he paused. “I’ve always thought you were really awesome. I mean, normally you’re not supposed to like your friend’s siblings, but you’re… different.”

“How so?” Dave gulped, expecting to be placed right smack in the friend zone, because where else could this conversation be going?

“I… I don’t really know how to phrase this, but…” Eli trailed off, scratched his arm.

“But?”

“I… really like you….” Silence fell between them. The silenced stretched on longer and longer until finally Dave couldn’t handle it anymore. Glancing up, he saw that Eli was looking at him, his facial expression giving away his nervousness as he waited for Dave’s response.

When Dave didn’t respond, Eli sighed and said, “Look, I’m sure you only want to be friends, and that you’re probably totally weirded out that I, a guy, like you, who is also a guy. If it helps, I can leave you alone.”

Dave, who had thought that Eli was only opening his mouth so that he could clarify that he only liked Dave as a friend, was left absolutely floored by Eli’s words. _He likes me? Me? Seriously? Crap, how do I respond? What do I say? Oh my god, I’m going to make a total fool out of myself if I try to answer him now._

Lost in thought, he almost didn’t notice that Eli had bent to pick up his shoes and was standing up. Without even thinking, he grabbed Eli’s hand.

 

_Oh god, this is not going the way I planned. Crap. Abort mission! Abort mission! He probably thinks you’re a weird creep now!_ Eli thought as the silence continued to stretch between him and Dave following his confession to the younger guy.

Feeling himself start to lose his nerve, Eli bent down and picked up his shoes, avoiding the throw up as best as he could, and began to stand up. He was stopped, though, by the hand that was now holding his.

Turning, he looked down into Dave’s eyes. He was surprised when he didn’t see disgust written all over the other boy’s face. Instead, he saw only happiness – and maybe a hint of nervousness.

“You never really asked me how I feel about this whole situation,” Dave said, standing up slowly.

“So, how do you feel about me?” Eli asked as Dave took a nervous step towards him.

“Why don’t you find out?”

Eli didn’t need much more encouragement than that. Closing the distance between them, he brought one hand up to cup the side of Dave’s face and leaned down, kissing him. He didn’t care if he could still taste the harsh tang of throw-up on the other boy’s lips. No, instead all he focused on was that singular moment, wishing it would last forever.

Unfortunately, though, air – and the oxygen it contained – was a necessary part of his survival and he was forced to pull away, but not before kissing Dave lightly on the nose.

He could hear the far off sound of police sirens getting closer, probably responding to a noise complaint due to the party. Behind him, he heard the bus pulling up to the stop, probably for its last pickup of the night. Looking down into Dave’s eyes, he smiled and asked, “Do you want to get out of here?”

Dave took his hand, blushing slightly and murmured, “I thought you’d never ask.”

The two of them got on the bus, taking seats at the back, and while the night was just ending for some, theirs was only just beginning.


End file.
